Jacqualyne Johnson took her son to a psychological well being hospital in Fort Price, Texas, on April 19. Anthony Johnson Jr. had not slept for 2 days, and he suffered from schizophrenic episodes. This time it was “hot and heavy,” she mentioned, and Anthony was attempting to not hurt himself.
Anthony all the time wished to be a trusted man amongst his household, his sister Chanell mentioned, and deliberate to earn faculty levels. He wished to repair his psychological well being points and have a house for his household. However this was his second latest journey to a hospital; a previous manic episode spurred a go to in February.
Amanda McCoy/Fort Price Star-Telegram by way of Related Press
After a 15-minute evaluation, medical officers determined to not maintain him on the hospital, saying it was finest if he stayed together with his household. After they arrived again residence, Anthony received two baggage of garments and left. That was the final time Jacqualyne Johnson noticed her son. Lower than 24 hours later, her son referred to as and mentioned he had been arrested and was within the Tarrant County Jail in Fort Price. The 31-year-old Marine veteran was held on prices of evading arrest and drug possession.
“I told him to be safe in there, and we will work on getting you out of there on Monday,” Jacqualyne Johnson remembered.
However he died on April 21 contained in the jail. In accordance with authorities, a wrestle passed off between Johnson and several other officers as deputies have been conducting a routine contraband verify.
Surveillance footage and a cellphone video present a number of officers battling Johnson whereas trying to handcuff him exterior of his cell. Officer Rafael Moreno knelt on Johnson’s again. Johnson will be heard responding: “I can’t breathe.”
The footage didn’t present the total encounter, in line with Daryl Washington, the legal professional representing Johnson’s household. This month, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Workplace dominated Johnson’s demise a murder by asphyxiation.
Final month, a grand jury indicted Tarrant County Sheriff’s Officer jailer Moreno and Lt. Joel Garcia on homicide prices.
Garcia’s legal professional launched a assertion to KTXA-TV in Fort Price, saying the officer was “heartbroken” about Johnson’s demise however that he dedicated “no crime.”
Johnson was one among 64 individuals who have died within the Tarrant County Jail within the final seven years. The causes included suicides, overdoses — and deadly encounters with workers.
Calls For Federal Oversight
A number of officers in Texas are sounding the alarm for federal intervention on the jail.
In early June, Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas) urged the Division of Justice to launch an investigation into “the distressing pattern of inmate deaths and jail incidents at the Tarrant County Jail in Fort Worth.” Veasey additionally wrote a letter to the Justice Division in Might, elevating alarms about individuals within the jail dying resulting from drug overdoses and poor supervision.
“From physical altercations to drug overdoses and even an unattended birth, the loss of any life within correctional facilities is intolerable and warrants immediate investigation and action,” the letter mentioned.
Critics have additionally homed in on Tarrant County Sheriff Invoice Waybourn, who’s in command of the jail. “The sheriff has lost all institutional control of that facility, and it needs to be controlled by the feds at this point. I don’t know how many deaths have to occur,” Washington, the lawyer for Johnson’s household, mentioned.
Waybourn fired Garcia and Moreno on Might 16 following Johnson’s demise, however he reinstated them per week later, then fired them once more.
When Johnson died on April 21, Waybourn mentioned division coverage was violated when an officer knelt on Johnson’s again. However Waybourn has not commented on the case for the reason that two sheriff’s officers have been charged.
The Tarrant County Jail is the third-largest county jail in Texas, with capability for about 5,000 prisoners. Tarrant County spent $18 million in 2022 to maneuver some individuals to a correctional facility in tiny Garza County, almost 300 miles west, to alleviate overpopulation. However after a jail requirements overview, the lockup was discovered to be out of compliance with “minimum jail standards” in December 2023. The county has since thought-about canceling the settlement with the Texas jail contractor. Individuals who have been despatched to Garza County are scheduled to return to Tarrant County in September and October, Tarrant County officers informed HuffPost.
However advocates and officers say jail workers have poor supervision of individuals’s dwelling situations and that the jail continues to be overcrowded. The sheriff’s workplace disputed that and mentioned it welcomed any exterior companies to analyze the ability.
“Sheriff Waybourn welcomes the Department of Justice and any other investigatory agency into the jail,” Robbie Hoy, public info officer for the sheriff’s workplace, informed HuffPost. He claimed that an as-yet unfiled inspection from the Texas Fee on Jail Requirements preliminarily discovered the tradition inside the ability is “positive; the inmates appear to respect the staff; the leadership is active and engaged” and that the ability is “impressive; impeccably clean — one of the cleanest facilities we’ve seen.”
Waybourn didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark that have been despatched to his private telephone and his marketing campaign workers.
Different prison justice advocates within the county have demanded that Waybourn, who has been sheriff since 2017, resign. Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons mentioned Waybourn isn’t doing his job.
“I am seeking transparency for those people that we serve, for our constituents. It is clear that there are problems at this jail,” Simmons mentioned. “We are going to be paying out more and more multimillion-dollar settlements if our leadership does not change at the sheriff’s office. We have a sheriff who is not implementing meaningful reforms that will ensure the safety of those in custody. The sheriff, my colleagues and I on the Commissioners Court bear a responsibility for all of these deaths and the spending of taxpayer dollars to settle with these grieved families.”
Tarrant County isn’t deep pink: President Joe Biden very narrowly edged Donald Trump there in 2020. However Waybourn has aligned himself with some far-right politics that might endanger his reelection bid in November. His Democratic opponent is Patrick Moses, and residents have led demonstrations this month demanding Waybourn’s resignation.
In 2016, the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Affiliation endorsed Waybourn’s marketing campaign. CSPOA is a political group for sheriffs who consider they’ve authority over native, state and federal authorities inside their counties.
Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted within the August 2020 killing of two individuals in Kenosha, Wisconsin, amid unrest over the police capturing of a Black man, posted a photograph final yr with Waybourn and Cary Cheshire, a Texas activist. Cheshire is government director of Texans for Sturdy Borders. The Texas Tribune reported final yr that the group’s founder and president, Chris Russo, had shut ties to Nick Fuentes, a far-right commentator with white supremacist ties.
Defend Texas Liberty, a strong political donor group that additionally embraced Fuentes, donated $5,000 to Waybourn’s marketing campaign in 2020.
“He is the elected leader of the jail. It is all under his watch and under his leadership. And he is posing with Kyle Rittenhouse and taking money from these white supremacists’ PAC groups. Those are all reflections of his character that create a culture of disregard, particularly for Black inmates and their life,” Joshua Lucas, a prison justice reform co-chair of the Justice Community of Tarrant County informed HuffPost.
Extra Deaths, Few Solutions
Robert Miller died within the Tarrant County Jail in 2019. State medical consultants dominated that sickle cell anemia was the trigger and cited overexertion. However a 2021 post-mortem report amended the reason for demise to “undetermined.” The Fort Price Star-Telegram reported that officers pepper-sprayed Miller 3 times and that he didn’t obtain medical consideration after telling a nurse he couldn’t breathe.
Medical consultants interviewed by the Fort Price Star-Telegram years after the ruling mentioned medical officers within the county have been complicated an individual having a sickle cell trait, which Miller did have, with sickle cell illness and that it was an unlikely reason behind demise.
Amanda McCoy/Fort Price Star-Telegram by way of Getty Photographs
In 2020, three Tarrant County officers on the jail have been arrested for beating a person named Cory Rodrigues, who suffered a damaged cheekbone, damaged ribs and a collapsed lung, in line with arrest information. The county’s district legal professional later dismissed the costs.
Twenty-one individuals died in custody in 2020, which was 3.5 occasions the mortality price of the Dallas County Jail, its jap neighbor, in line with county information.
Final month, the county accredited the biggest settlement in county historical past following the demise of a child born contained in the Tarrant County Jail that yr. Chasity Congious gave start whereas alone in a cell. The umbilical twine was wrapped across the child’s neck. Her lawsuit claimed jail workers took almost 40 minutes to comprehend she was giving start.
Congious and the infant have been taken to a hospital, and the infant was pronounced lifeless 10 days later.
One other lady, Chasity Bonner, died within the jail on Might 27 following a drug overdose. Simmons, the county commissioner, informed HuffPost she is anxious about what number of medicine seem like entering into the jail and the latest variety of deaths which have been linked to potential drug use whereas in custody.
At a County Commissioners assembly final month, residents anticipated to study extra about Bonner’s demise, however Waybourn didn’t attend the assembly, and no additional updates have been offered. Janell Johnson, Anthony Johnson’s sister, was pressured out of the assembly after she directed a fiery assertion towards officers as she demanded extra solutions in regards to the jail deaths of her brother and different individuals.
Looking For Solutions
Anthony Johnson’s mom additionally nonetheless desires solutions, and she or he desires entry to the total video of the incident that preceded her son’s demise.
“That one video should raise a lot of suspicion as to what is happening in the facility. My son was in custody, and they did the same thing to him that they did to George Floyd. This is like George Floyd 2.0,” she mentioned, referring to the Might 25, 2020, police homicide of the Black man in Minneapolis.
Washington, her lawyer, says federal intervention of the jail must happen.
“They heard Anthony say that he could not breathe. The sheriff said the maneuver was not something he approved of,” Washington informed HuffPost.
“You would think after what happened to Anthony that they would be taking every step to make sure everyone is full protected. “The sheriff has lost all institutional control of that facility, and it needs to be controlled by the feds at this point, I don’t know how many deaths have to occur. These are individuals who are mostly considered innocent. They have not had their day in court.”
